From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Kevin Rodgers Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.bugs Subject: Lisp manual missing link from Using Interactive to Minibuffers for read-* functions Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2006 11:57:23 -0700 Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1140239165 6430 80.91.229.2 (18 Feb 2006 05:06:05 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 18 Feb 2006 05:06:05 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: bug-gnu-emacs-bounces+geb-bug-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Feb 18 06:06:04 2006 Return-path: Envelope-to: geb-bug-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by ciao.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1FAKI8-00019T-NV for geb-bug-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 18 Feb 2006 06:05:57 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1FAKI8-0000hM-2u for geb-bug-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 18 Feb 2006 00:05:56 -0500 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1FACKk-0008O9-MN for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Fri, 17 Feb 2006 15:36:07 -0500 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1FAC0C-0004Dj-WB for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Fri, 17 Feb 2006 15:14:55 -0500 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1FAAnh-0005YQ-GZ for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Fri, 17 Feb 2006 13:57:54 -0500 Original-Received: from [80.91.229.2] (helo=ciao.gmane.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS-1.0:RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA:32) (Exim 4.52) id 1FAAt6-0005tB-RM for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Fri, 17 Feb 2006 14:03:29 -0500 Original-Received: from list by ciao.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.43) id 1FAAnb-0004EN-2C for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Fri, 17 Feb 2006 19:57:47 +0100 Original-Received: from 207.167.42.60 ([207.167.42.60]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Fri, 17 Feb 2006 19:57:47 +0100 Original-Received: from ihs_4664 by 207.167.42.60 with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Fri, 17 Feb 2006 19:57:47 +0100 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ Original-To: bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-Lines: 69 Original-X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: 207.167.42.60 User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 0.9 (X11/20041105) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en X-BeenThere: bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Bug reports for GNU Emacs, the Swiss army knife of text editors" List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: bug-gnu-emacs-bounces+geb-bug-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: bug-gnu-emacs-bounces+geb-bug-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.bugs:14856 Archived-At: From the Using Interactive node of the Emacs Lisp manual: | There are three possibilities for the argument ARG-DESCRIPTOR: | | * It may be omitted or `nil'; then the command is called with no | arguments. This leads quickly to an error if the command requires | one or more arguments. | | * It may be a Lisp expression that is not a string; then it should | be a form that is evaluated to get a list of arguments to pass to | the command. | | If this expression reads keyboard input (this includes using the | minibuffer), keep in mind that the integer value of point or the | mark before reading input may be incorrect after reading input. | This is because the current buffer may be receiving subprocess | output; if subprocess output arrives while the command is waiting | for input, it could relocate point and the mark. Before delving into the details of how subprocess output can affect the point and mark, it would be much more helpful to have a simple statement that the normal thing to do is to read input from the user via the minibuffer, and to include a link to the Minibuffers node (whose subnodes describe most of the various read-* functions). But since the various read-* functions are scattered across several nodes at different places in the manual, it would be even better if there was a single Reading User Input node that listed them all. That node could then be referenced from Using Interactive, and might be as simple as this: *Note Text from Minibuffer::. `read-from-minibuffer', `read-string', `read-no-blanks-input' *Note Object from Minibuffer::. `read-minibuffer' * Note High-Level Completion::. `read-buffer', `read-command', `read-variable' * Note Reading File Names::. `read-file-name' * Note Reading a Password::. `read-passwd' * Note Key Sequence Input::. `read-key-sequence', `read-key-sequence-vector' * Note Reading One Event::. `read-event', `read-char', `read-char-exclusive' * Note Quoted Character Input::. `read-quoted-char' * Note User-Chosen Coding Systems::. `read-coding-system', `read-non-nil-coding-system' * Note Input Methods::. `read-input-method-name' The "wrong" example in the Using Interactive node that follows the cited text above is actually very illustrative, and could then serve as the introduction to the digression on subprocess output affecting point and mark. Thanks, -- Kevin Rodgers